Pain
by Sakura Kreuz
Summary: "Look, I am sorry I just called you me precious scientist. You mean a lot more to me than that, you are my very best friend, the only one who understands my situation completely." he told Ai. "Don't you dare touch her Gin, or I will personally make you remaining life a hell", he said as he locked his eyes with Ran's grey eyes. It is a Shinchi X Ran and not Shinchi X Ai.
1. Chapter 1

A young boy with black hair and big glasses walked out of Teitan Elementary School while playing with a football. Close behind him some other kids, two girls and two boys.

"Conan, do you think the professor will take us camping this weekend?", asked the two boys.

"Perhaps, but why do you ask me? If you guys want to go camping, shouldn't you just ask him yourself?" the boy with the glasses answered.

"Yeah we should but the professor always do as you and Haibara-kun says. So we thought that if we made one of you ask the professor, then he would most likely take us camping", Ayumi-chan said worriedly, before continuing.

"Haibara-kun says she doesn't want to ask, so we decided that you should ask for us", she finished in a rush.

Conan decided that if Haibara-kun said that she didn't want to go camping, there was definetly something going on, but then again he couldn't just turn down those kids either, so he ended up saying that he would ask the professor, before he and Haibara-kun continued towards the professors house, and the other three kids continued the other way.

Once Conan had made sure that he and Haibara-kun was alone on the road, he stopped her from walking any further.

"What ?" she asked annoyed.

"I know that you are hiding something, and that is why you didn't want to tell the kids that you'd ask the professor. Because most likely we won't be going on a camping this weekend, right?".

She decided to answer after finding out that Conan wouldn't release her hand before answering him. So she reculantly began to tell him.

"You see ... I ... I ... I ...".

"Just tell it already"Conan said impatiently.

"Okay, it is not my fail if you are shocked, alright?"

Conan nodde vigorusly, and Haibara-kun continued.

"You know the poison that made you shrink into this size, the APTX-4897, I believe I have found an antidote for it".

Conan was silent for a while, before he dragged Haibara –kun with him towards the professor's house. Only there did he show his reaction.

"What", he yelled.

"Well, why is it so surprising? I have worked on finding an antidote to that poison ever since I met you.I have had like almost a year to just research it. That is more than enough time to figure out the antidote to one mere poison" she said calmly.

"Well, why haven't you given it to me yet, I need to meet Ran and Inspector Megure and all the others".

"I can't give it to you", she answered flatly.

"What! But you just you finished it"

"well, yeah ... I said it since I had finished it, but that you couldn't have it"

"Why not ?"

"Because the Black Organisation isn't defeated yet! If I give you the antidote now, you will just run to your girlfriend and propose to her or something equally ridiculous and stupid."

"She isn't my girlfriend! And I never do stupid and ridiculous things"

"Yeah right, says the one who stuck his nose into the Black Organization's business, by his own free will"

"Okay OK I get it. I am a fool alright? Can you now tell me why you can't give me the antidote, please?"

"yeesh, fine. I'll tell you. If you turn into your regular self, there will be a high possibility that Gin and Vodka will find you cause I am sure that you won't drop your detective business that easily, right? Then everything will go back to the way it is right now, you hiding in order to protect the Mouri-girl and you just disappearing", Ai said, as she turned around and opened the door to professor Agasa's house.

Conan on the other hand seemed to have been sent into some kind of shock modus, since he was just standing outside the house, and trying to process the fact that he could never return to his true self, before he had taken care of an organization, which seemed to have connections everywhere, which made them close to invincible. Suddenly he darted forward into the house and run down to Ai's room, where she was relaxing. He barged right into the room, almost throwing the door out of its' hinges, which startled Ai so much that she almost fell of the chair she was sitting on.

"What the hell, hap-", Ai began, before Conan grabbed her hand and ran out of the professors house, not even bothering to lock the door, and ran into Shinchi's house.

Once both of them entered his house, Ai pulled her arm, which made Conan loose the grip he had on her arm.

"What the hell? Why did you just drag me out of my room?", she asked him angry.

"Well, you said I couldn't change back unless the Organization was defeated right? Well the main reason to why we can't defeat them is because we never know where they are, right? So if we made a trap, we could easily make the Jodie-sensei and her colleagues ambush and arrest them!" he exclaimed happily. Ai just looked at him, as if he was mad or something, before dryly saying:

"And just exactly how is this trap supposed to work?". That washed the happy grin off Conan's face.

"And exactly why do you think a clever guy like Gin will fall in a trap, that you make?", Conan's face turned glum, and as if her point wasn't driven completely through she made a last comment, which shouldn't have done.

"And what exactly are you going to tempt them with, that will make them leave their hiding, which they have kept, since The Organization was formed?". Conan's face suddenly lit up again, as if somebody had just turned on the light switch for his face.

"You!" he exclaimed happily.

"What!", Ai asked, not grasping the situation.

"You! You can be the decoy that will lead Gin and the others out of hiding. He is always reckless, when it come's to you", he exclaimed. It seemed like it now was Ai's turn to go into shock modus, as she was just perfectly still, not moving a single muscle. If Conan hadn't seen the slight movement in her chest, he would have thought she was one of the unfortunate corpses he always seemed to encounter. After a few minutes, she got the ability to speak back, and used it for all it was worth, when she screamed into his face:

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! Haven't you grasped a single thing I have told you after I met you? They will kill me on sight! No way in hell, am I going to let myself get killed just so you can get back to your boring life! I thought you were stupid, but you have just put up another bottom level for stupidity, you BAKA!".

"Of course I won't let you die. I will tell Jodie-sensei to put up extra high security. I would never let anything happen to you. After all you are my most precious" he said slowly, before continuing,

"scientist", which shattered all of Ai's romantic thoughts of him. She didn't even bother to talk to his face, and just yelled over her shoulder as she left:

"I am NOT going to help you in your suicide mission! And I won't change my opinion on it, so leave me ALONE!". Conan heard the hard thump of the door being slammed into its hinges, before the entire house turned silent.

He had expected her to react somewhat similar to that, when he had voiced his opinion about her acting as a decoy, but he had never thought of her telling him to leave her alone. Why would she want to be alone? People tended to want to be left alone, when their feelings were hurt, but he hadn't said anything mean to her. He had even called her his precious scientist and promised her that he would protect her. That should have made her feel happy and not sad, right? He decided to sit in the library, and ponder over Haibara's weird reaction and until he found a solution to his problems with The Organization. However when he had sat there in three hours and he hadn't figured anything out, he decided it was time to head back to his temporary home at detective Mouri's residence. He locked the door to his home and walked over to the professor's house to tell Haibara goodbye. But when he came to the door he found it locked, and even though he knew Haibara was there, she wouldn't open the door. Not even after he had knocked on the door, rang the bell and called out to her for nearly five minutes. He couldn't understand what it was that had upset the sarcastic scientist this much, but as he couldn't stand and wait there any longer, he turned his back to the professor's house and walked away. People who passed him thought he looked like a lost puppy, and when he came back to his home, it seemed like Ran sensed his unhappiness, because she managed to keep Oji-san away from his back for the entire evening. However Oji-san didn't seem to get it, until Conan said he didn't want to go to a murder scene with the detective.

As Ran didn't want Conan to be by himself in the evening, she too decided to stay home with the boy, while her father went to his work. Since Conan didn't want to talk with Ran, she ended up calling Kazuha, out of pure boredom.

"Hi Ran, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing much. I just don't have anything to do, so I thought I might call you and just chat. Well that is unless you are busy or something", Ran said unsurely.

"Well I am not busy, that's for sure. I am just helping Heji pack his backpack for the detective tournament."

"The detective tournament? What is that?" Ran asked curiously, wondering if Shinchi might show up at it.

"Are you wondering whether or not your boyfriend might show up?" Kazuha asked slyly.

"What, no of course not! I was just curious!" Ran exclaimed indigently, while trying not to blush, which she failed completely at as Conan absentmindly noted, since her cheeks were showing a furious blush creeping up from her chin and all the way up to her ears and eyes.

"Ran-nee-chan, what is the detective tournament?" Conan asked curiously.

"Oh, Conan-kun, you want to know too? Well then I can put the phone on speaker, so Kazuha can explain it to the both of us at the same time." Ran told Conan, while she turned on the speaker on her cell.

"Hi, Conan-kun. How are you?" Kazuha asked, "Fine, but what is the detective tournament?" Conan asked curiously.

"Oh, it is not technically a detective tournament, it is more like a celebrity tournament for high school students. You see, Sakura TV (couldn't remember the name of the TV channel in the series, so I just made up mine own), had a poll over what kind of high school celebrity they liked the most, and the ones who won were the detectives and students who excelled in one of the subjects in school or in a sport. Later Sakura TV decided to make a show about a tournament where all the participants will be allowed to show off their talents in different events. The person with the most point in the end will be the winner and receive a surprise prize. What's more is that Sakura TV had another poll on who to invite to this tournament, and the winners of this poll has been sent a letter with info concerning this tournament. Moreover is the fact that each participants is allowed to take a friend or assistant with them to the tournament to help them out, but that could also pull down your overall score later. And it is this tournament that Heji is preparing for. It will by the way take place in two weeks, so Kudo-kun should also be able to participate if he wants to, as he is pretty famous." Kazuha finished.

"But Kazuha didn't you say that you and Heji would stay over at our place for the next month as all of us have summer holiday in the coming month?"

"Well of course, I am still gonna stay over at your place. It is just that Heji won't stay over for the entire month, and just for the first two weeks."

"But I thought you said that the participants could take a friend with them, and as you two are just friends I thought Heji would take you with him."

"What are you trying to imply? We are nothing more than friends!"

"What of course you aren't! But you still didn't answer to why you aren't going with him, aren't you pretty good in aikido."

"Thanks, but really I am not that good. And anyway Heji didn't want to lose points later, as you might if you have a partner, as the points will be divided, between both of the people."

"Oh, I see."

"When are you and Heji-nii-chan coming over then?"Conan asked.

"I suppose we will arrive in Beika tomorrow and can spend the holiday with you guys there until Heji has to leave, Conan-kun."Kazuha answered Conan warmly. As they weren't going to talk anymore about anything interesting, Conan decided to excuse himself and go to bed. However, he couldn't stop thinking about what he had said that had hurted Ai's feelings so much. But as time passed and he still couldn't find a solution, his eyes became heavier and heavier, until he slowly fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

As Conan woke up the next morning, all his worries from the night before rushed into his mind again. But since he didn't want to make Ran worry, he plastered a smile on his face, before going downstairs to the kitchen to eat breakfast.

"So Conan, do you want to come with me and the professor the meet Kazuha and Heji at the train station?"

"Why is the professor coming?"

"Well, dad is still busy with his case, so I asked the professor if he could drive us to the train station, pick them up and drive us back again. But do you want to come or not? Cause if you want to come you better get ready, as I am leaving in five minutes"

"OK, Ran-nee-chan I am coming with you, since I don't want to hang around your father the entire day". Ran only laughed when she heard this, before she gave him his breakfast and they began to walk over to the professor's house. As usual the professor was late, so Ran and Conan went inside the professor's house to wait for him. It just took the professor a few more minutes to get ready, and as they got into the car he rented for the day, as there wouldn't be enough place for all of them in his beetle, Conan received his first chance to apologize to Ai. The car had two seats in the front, the driver's seat and a passenger seat, then a row with three seats, and the two small seats in the back, where Conan and Ai were placed. Since Ran and the professor were sitting in the first row, and they had put on some music, there wouldn't be anybody who could listen to their conversation.

"Look, I am really sorry about yesterday, I really didn't think you would react like that" Conan said with a sincere face.

"Do you even know why you are apologizing?"

"Huh" Conan said brilliantly.

"I mean, do you know why I got so pissed off at you? cause if you don't then there isn't any point in apologizing !" Ai said before turning her head towards the window. She continued to stare out of the window, and completely ignore Conan until they arrived at the train station. The two kids remained in the car while Ran and the professor went into the train station in order to pick up the two teenagers from Osaka.

"Okay, look, I am really sorry about whatever it was that I said that made you so mad, but please forgive me, or tell me how I can make you forgive me, cause I can't stand the fact you are seriously mad at me. I feel so alone, now that you are ignoring me like this. It feels so lonely, cause you are the only one who knows who I truly am and how it feels to be locked in a kids body, unable to do and get what you want. Please accept my apology, cause I am really sorry."Conan said with bowed head, cause after all what he said was the truth.

"I am sorry Kudo, but I am not going to accept your apology until you realize why I am mad at you, or else there won't be any point in apologizing to me. But then again you are the detective, it shouldn't be that difficult to figure out why I am so mad, especially since you are such a great detective." Ai said, before once again turning her face towards the window, while letting Conan busying himself with figuring out why she was mad at him.

Some minutes later the professor arrived, followed by a silent, yet optimistic Heji, and the two teenage girls, Kazuha and Ran and their chatting. Since it was still the middle of the day and the professor had nothing better to do that day, he decided to accompany the teenagers and two kids for the rest of the day, as well as buy a meal for all of them.

Throughout the entire ride to the restaurant Ran and Kazuha were happily chatting, while the professor were driving, and the other three, being Heji, Conan and Ai were sitting silently staring out of the window. As the professor parked the car, Heji suddenly exclaimed:

"I can't take it anymore, Conan, talk to me!", which made the two other teenagers and the professor notice that Conan had indeed been really silent, actually he was unusually silent today.

"You okay, Conan-kun?" Ran asked worriedly, as she thought he was feeling ill.

"Huh, Oh, um, yeah, I am fine, um, I was just, um, you know, um, thinking, Ran-nee-chan" Conan said fastly assured Ran.

"um, ok then. Well anywhere we are here, lets go inside now" she said as she got out of the car, quickly followed by the others. They ordered something to eat, and as they were waiting for the food to arrive, all of them except for the two kids began to chat happily with each other. But after the waitress had left them with their food in their booth, the questioning began.

"Ok, Conan what's up with you? Why are you so silent?" Heji asked.

"What are you talking about, Heji-nii-san?", Conan asked innocently.

"Yeah you are acting weird Conan-kun, but it is not just you it is Ai-chan too. Why are you two so silent?" Ran asked concerned.

"No reason in particular", Ai answered, before turning her attention back to her food.

"And what is your reason then Conan?" Kazuha asked.

"I am just thinking, like I said in the car."

"Conan, would you just drop saying crap like that ! You say you are thinking, so what the hell are you thinking about then !" Heji yelled at Conan, making Kazuha and Ran try to soothe him, worrying that he would scare poor, little Conan.

"I am just thinking about something, and that is nothing of your concern !" Conan yelled in Heji's face.

"What the hell !Give me one reason to not telling me what the hell you are thinking about !"

"It is none of your concern! This is my problem and I will solve it by myself !" Just as Conan finished yelling this in Heji's face, he figured out that he had said something he shouldn't have said.

"Wait a moment, you mean that you are stuck on a case? The great detective is stuck on a case?" Heji asked, before he began to laugh. He continued to laugh until Kazuha punched him in the head a few minutes later, for being so mean to poor Conan-kun. During all of this Ai had sat amused, slowly eating her food, while enjoying Conan's discomfort.

"Well Conan-kun if you are stuck on a case, then why don't you tell us about it, maybe it will help you to solve it." Ran asked sincerely.

"Huh, what no! You can't know about that!" Conan said quickly, before he said anything more that Heji could tease him about. "Oh yeah, and why is it that you can't tell your elders about a case that you are stuck on, Conan-kun?" Heji asked slyly, enjoying Conan's absolute distress.

"Let me guess, you are having girl problems, right boy?" Heji asked cunningly, making Conan shake his head like crazy as he realized that Ran and Kazuha were listening, which made Ai unable to keep her laughter inside her so she began to laugh at poor Conan along with Heji, as they savored his embarrassed face.

"Oh, how kawaii Conan-kun. So who is this lucky girl, that you are having problems to attain?" Kazuha asked.

"It is not a girl-problem!" Conan yelled.

"Then is it a boy?"Heji asked.

"No! Just leave it alone!"

"Well if it isn't a boy, and you are not having a girl-problem, then you are worried about your first date with her or something, right?" Ran deduced.

"No! It is nothing like that!" Conan yelled tired

"Then how is it, Conan-kun? We are just trying to help." Ran said, looking down at the table.

"Sorry Ran-nee-chan for yelling at you." Conan said, as he felt really guilty for making Heji's teasing be a reason to yell at Ran.

"It is ok, Conan-kun. Now if you would explain your problems to us, it would all be easier to understand."

"I am fine on-"Conan began as he was interrupted by the waiter asking if they wanted their bill. Looking around they realized that they had been sitting there for almost two hours straight, and that there were a lot of customers in the restaurant, so they decided to walk over to the park, before doing anything more. However when they were in the park, they met Sonoko, and knowing Sonoko, Conan realized that he would be in big trouble once Sonoko heard that he was having girl problems. So in order to disappear before this mess turned into complete chaos, he asked Ran if he and Ai could go and play in the park. Ran thought this was a great idea, and sent them off with a smile, while Heji looked betrayed, as his only male companion left him with the three teenage girls, since the professor had left to recharge the parking ticket. (I am not completely sure if this is what it is called, but what I mean is that the professor had to put more money in the parking ticket automate, in order to park there for some more time.)

"Ok, what do you want?" Ai asked angry, that Conan had just dragged her with him.

"I want to apologize to you, please accept it. I can't take you ignoring me any more." Conan pleaded.

"Well have you figured out what it was that made me so mad?"

"No, but I am trying. What about a hint?"

"No, this was such a basic thing, that you should be able to figure it out by yourself", she said as walked away from him and towards the teenagers, making Conan stand alone by the playground for a few moments before he too, began to walk towards Ran and the others.

"Oh, Conan-kun and Ai-chan, are you guys back already? I thought you said you wanted to play?" Ran asked.

"Well, um, yeah, but-"

"You weren't in the mood to play, cause your mind is on that girl, right?" Heji asked with an innocent face.

"What! Conan-kun do you have a girlfriend?"Sonoko asked.

"No! I don't this is all just a big misunderstanding. Come on Ai-chan! We are going to play soccer/football over there" Conan said as he grabbed Ai's wrist and dragged her with him for a little distance again, so the teenagers couldn't listen to what they were talking about.

"Ok, enough is enough Ai, explain it to me! Why are you so mad?!" Conan yelled in her face. Suddenly Ai's already mad face turned even angrier as she grabbed him by the collar and pushed him up against a trunk.

"If you are so damn stupid that you can't figure it out, then you don't have the right to call yourself a great detective!" she yelled at him, before grabbing his throat, almost choking him. It was just at that time an old woman who was walking in the park saw that Ai was trying to choke Conan and screamed, which got Ran, Sonoko, Kazuha and Heji's attention. The teenagers ran towards the now, almost blue Conan, and pried Ai of Conan before doing anything else, on the other hand Conan was just happy Ai hadn't killed him, yet mad at her for going so far.

"Ok, what happened here, Ai-chan?"Ran asked sternly while holding Ai in a fast grip.

"Nothing!" she said as she was trying to wriggle out of Ran's grip on her. Ran turned her glance over to Conan, whose face seemed to have regained its original color.

"What happened here? And don't tell me some bullshit, like it was nothing." Ran told Conan angry.

Conan sensed that Ran was really pissed off now, which was very unusual for the pretty, yet strong girl. This was actually the first time Conan had seen her so upset, since he was changed into this cursed form of his.

"It is nothing," Conan said stubbornly, which made everything boil over for Ran.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?! It is pretty obvious something is wrong, as you just tried to choke Conan-kun" she yelled and poked Ai in her chest,

"and you have been silent ever since you returned from her house yesterday, you even stayed home yesterday in stead of following otou-san (otou-san = father)to his work!" Ran yelled as she turned to Conan.

"Obviously something is really wrong when, you two who are always present in some murder case, are trying to choke each other, and you are just kids! The professor more or less puts me in charge of both of you, and at once when he leaves you to alone, because he trusts you; you try to kill each other. What would your parents have said?! "She yelled in both their faces, before taking in a deep breath to calm herself down. The two kids felt guilty about making her worry, Conan cause well it was Ran, the only girl he loved, and he had just made her mad, and Ai cause Ran remembered her of her own sister, and she would never have anything like this to her nee-chan (nee-chan = older sister).

"Gomen," Ai said while looking at the ground, and fidgeting with her feet.

"Gomen, Ran – nee – chan for making you worry, " (Gomen=sorry) Conan said after a little while, as he too was fidgeting.

"Ok ask each other for an apology, and go off to play" Ran said calmly.

"What!" Conan yelled, unable to contain his anger towards the unfairness.

"What are you yelling about Conan-kun? It is only appropriate to apologize to each other after a quarrel. So apologize to Ai-chan." Ran told him sternly.

"No way in hell that I would apologize to her!" he yelled in her face, getting a surprised sound from Heji, cause he was yelling in Ran's face, and a shocked gasp from the teenage girls' mouths cause of his words/ cuss words (the: "no way in hell" – comment).

"Why not?" Ran asked slowly in order to not lose her temper on the idiotic little kid.

"What the hell do you think I have been doing ever since the evening yesterday. I have apologized to her for at least a dozen times already. If she doesn't want to accept my apologizes then she can just rot in hell!" Conan yelled before slumping down on the ground with crossed arms over his chest, and sulking. The three teenage girls were just standing there dumbfound of the seemingly innocent Conan's vocabulary, while Heji couldn't believe he was so oblivious that he couldn't figure out that Conan were dealing with such an obvious problem like a quarrel with a girl.

Ran turned her attention towards Ai-chan while thinking:

"Why couldn't a single visit from Kazuha-chan stay normal, without all this mess, why can't Conan behave like he is doing whenever she isn't around?" However what she asked Ai-chan was: "Why don't you just accept his apology?"

"Why the hell should I accept his apology, if he can't even understand why I am so mad at him?! What is the point if apologizing then? Cause if doesn't realize it now, what are the chances that he won't do it again, simply cause he never understood how upsetting his words were? That is why he can figure it out on his own, in order to reduce the chances for this to happen again. And that is also why I am off for now." She told Ran and Kazuha, before turning around and walking out of the park.

"Oi, Ai-chan, wait a moment, where are you going?" Kazuha yelled after her.

"I am going home. After all it is just about a quarters walking distance. That way I won't have to deal with him." She said before turning around again and walking away from them.

"What the hell? Where do you think you are going? Get back here and answer my questions!" Conan yelled after the retreating girl, until Heji punched him in the head in Kogoro-style.

"What the heck is wrong with you brat! Are you so stupid that you can't figure out a little girl's reason to hate you? Well if you can't, then you could always just ask me, the great detective of the west!" Heji said and smirked.

"Well Heji is right in one thing. If you can't solve this by yourself you should have asked us for help," Sonoko told the kid.

"I don't need your help, I am completely fine on my own. I am going home now Ran-nee-chan to play the new videogame the professor gave me, so I'll meet you there later, ok?", he asked/said as he too walked away from the teenagers.

As he walked he overheard a quarreling couple.

"How could you say that to me!" the girl sobbed.

"What do you mean?" the boy asked worriedly.

"Don't I mean anything more to you?"

"What! Didn't you listen to what I said! You are my most precious colleague!"

"Am I nothing more to you than a colleague?" the girl whispered.

"Of course you are! You are my girlfriend!"

"Then why are you calling me you colleague?"

"Oh, that is just because it is unusual to call you my girlfriend,as we have just been dating for a few weeks. But if you want to hear it, then... You are my absolute most precious human, and I couldn't live without you., cause I love you, and I hope that you will be my girlfriend forever." The boy said sincerely.

"Really! You mean that?"

"Of course I do, baka. But you are my precious baka." the boy said, before closing the distance between the two of them, which was when Conan realized his mistake and ran towards the exit to the park.

As he reached the exit, he caught up with Ai-chan who was slowly making her way over the parking lot, to tell the professor that she was leaving. Because the professor's car where on the other end of the parking lot, which meant they had to cross a little road before meeting the professor who was still stuck in the queue for getting a parking ticket.

"Oi, Ai-chan wait!" he yelled as he ran towards her.

"What do you want?" she asked bitterly, as he caught up with her.

"I figured it out, why you are so mad at me that is." He gasped as he tried to catch his breath. The two kids were slowly crossing the road while they were talking. Ai was focused on the ground while she walked, so she never saw what he saw; a truck coming right at them in full speed, while the driver was frantically trying to avoid crashing into the two kids. A screeching sound was heard, before the dripping sound of fresh blood hitting the pavement, and everything was silent.


	3. Chapter 3

It stayed silent for a little while, before everything erupted into chaos. But what had actually happened and where were Ai and Conan? Were they safe, or was that pool of sticky, scarlet colored blood really the only remains of the two kids? This is what happened a few moments ago:

"I figured it out, why you are so mad at me that is." He gasped as he tried to catch his breath. The two kids were slowly crossing the road while they were talking. Ai was focused on the ground while she walked, so she never saw what he saw; a truck coming right at them in full speed, while the driver was frantically trying to avoid crashing into the two kids. Conan knew there wasn't enough time to get them out of the way before the truck hit them, so he did the only thing he could. He grabbed Ai's waist,

"What the – " she began before she was smashed face first into the ground , as he too fell face first on the ground. By doing this there was just enough space for them to lay on the asphalt as the driver drove the truck right over them, and stopped it.

"You saved my life?" she asked shocked over how close she had been to death, and at the fact that she had been so close to dying, but not because of the Black Organization as she had believed, but because of a truck, a god damn vehicle, and it was just because she hadn't paying any attention to where she was walking.

"Of course I saved your life" he gasped offended.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Well I thought that I didn't mean as much to you as I thought I did." She answered truthfully while looking for a way out of the little space under the truck. Just as she one, she hears Conan gasp, before beginning to whimper.

"What's up with you?" she asked curiously, while trying to figure out how she was supposed to get out from almost beneath Conan's body and out in the sun again.

"I just think I was -" he began before beginning to chough out blood and he lost consciousness.

"What the hell?" Ai thought shocked as she realized that he must have been hit with something when the truck drove over them.

It had already been some minutes since the truck drove over them, and people had began to swarm around the truck, including Ran, Sonoko, Kazuha, Heji and the Professor.

"Oi, you are the driver, right?" Heji asked a young man with brownish hair and a blue jacket as well as blue pants.

"Yes," he answered shakily.

"Why are you stopping your truck in the middle of the road? There are a lot of people here who wants to get going." Heji said.

"Yeah, but I think I drove into somebody" he answered, gaining shocked gasps from the girls.

"What! Who did you crash into?" Heji asked.

"Us" Ai answered tired, before slumping down on the pavement, tired after wriggling out from under Conan's body, and dragging him with her all the way out in the air.

"Conan – kun! " Ran gasped shocked.

"What the hell are you just waiting for?! Call an ambulance! He was hit with something in his head as well as bleeding badly from his back after being cut by something!" Ai yelled at the dumbfounded teenagers. The poor driver just looked to be in shock. A few minutes later the ambulance came and drove Conan over to the hospital, while the others were following in the Professor's car. The teenagers had asked if Ai had been hurt, but they accepted her story about her falling into a little hollow, which probably saved her. However the truth was that Conan had saved her life at the cost of his own, because the ambulance personnel had already said what Ai had feared. That the chances that Conan would survive were less than 30%, because he had lost way too much blood, which by the way had coated Ai's clothes, as well as because of his injury to the head. Ran had asked if she wanted to stop to change her clothes from the bloody ones she was wearing but she had declined, because after all it was her fault that he was dying, so she really shouldn't worry about making her clothes dirty with his blood.

It was her fault that he was dying. Her fault that he would die without ever confessing his feelings to the Mouri – girl (Yes, I know that Shinchi / Conan more or less confessed to her in the London Arc, but I needed to take away that confession for making my story make sense later). Her fault that he would die before gaining his real body for real. Her fault that he would die before being able to get revenge on the Black Organization. Her fault that he would die before her, just because she hadn't been attention to where she was walking.

"Oi, Ai – chan?", a male voice interrupted her mind's guilty monologue. She looked up from her lap and into Heji's brown eyes, with a questioning glance.

"What happened back there on the parking lot?" he asked with a voice that said that he wanted to know the details.

"I can't remember, it is all so jumbled up", she said, avoiding answering his question. Just as he opened his mouth to tell her to tell him the truth, a tanned palm smacked him in the face. Just as Ai looked out of the window again, she heard Kazuha's angry voice tell Heji to leave her alone as she probably were in shock since she had witnessed somebody closed to her get hurt, just like the paramedics had said. Really why would she be in shock over seeing Conan get hurt, it wasn't like it was the first time she had witnessed it. He would always sacrifice himself before letting anybody touch a hair on any of his friends' heads. Why had she never seen how much he cared about her, before now? Why did had she believed that he didn't care about her anymore, just because of his choice of words? It was probably just, because he was a male, and hadn't understood how important it had been to her. Why had she never realized it before? Why? Why did Conan have to suffer just because she had been so stupid, and not accepted his apology?

They arrived at the hospital a few minutes later, and her silent monologue was once again stopped as she began to eavesdrop on the nurses and doctors in order to gain some kind of knowledge on Conan's health. However, the nurses had obviously been told to not talk about Conan when she was around, "as she probably still was in shock over seeing her playing friend being severely injured".

"What the hell is up with everyone acting as if I am some kind of kid and that can't handle to hear the truth, just because I have a kid's body?" she thought to herself.

"OK, I know that it makes sense, but really it isn't as if I haven't seen worse, or as if I haven't seen other people close to me get injured, or even as if I haven't done worse myself when I was trying to finish my dad's project, to gain immortality. Just tell me already, you damn nurse!" She thought to herself, almost losing her patience and choking the nurse when she arrived in the waiting room a few seconds later. However she composed herself and waited to hear the results from the nurse.

The nurse looked at the eagerly faces of Ran, Kazuha, Sonoko, Heji and the professor and the gloomy face of the little girl with the bloody clothes and the auburn hair. It was almost as if the little girl knew what she was going to say, almost as if she knew that she was going to say that the little boy was –

"Just hurry up and tell us how the brat's condition is, already!" Heji snapped at the poor nurse. Yet she wasn't able to meet any of their glances, as she slowly said what they had all feared to hear.

"The boy, Edwoga Conan probably won't live for more than 48 more hours, as his head has been severely injured, making parts of his skull dent and crack, leaving small splinters from the skull dangerously close to the brain. In addition he has already lost way to much blood, so that even if we tried to do a surgery, right now, he would loose too much blood to stay alive." There was a shocked silence, before Heji shot up from his seat and grabbed the poor nurse by her collar, and began to yell at her:

"How the hell can a little boy that is barely seven years be going to die!" the poor nurse who was shocked by Heji's sudden outburst lost her papers on the floor, where Ai bent down and began to pick them up. She would cast a glance at some of the papers before putting them in a stack, when she realized something and quickly went through the results on Conan's condition.

"um, why didn't you try using an advanced spinal surgery(I have absolutely no idea what this is, I am simply making up a difficult sounding surgery) on him?" Ai asked which made the others shut up and looking shocked at Ai.

"Huh, how do you know about that?" the shocked nurse asked.

"um, my aunt told me about it before, but that is not important. Why don't you try an advanced spinal surgery on him?" Ai said.

"This is a small hospital, so we don't have anybody who actually specialized in that field." the nurse answered truthfully.

"But why can't you move him to a greater hospital, like the Tokyo official hospital?" Ran asked.

"It would be way too dangerous. He has already lost too much blood, and if move him more now, it could result in him losing even more blood, which could make him lose his life even faster." the nurse answered truthfully.

"So what you are saying is that, if we brought you a surgeon who had specialized in that field, then Conan-kun can be saved, right?" Heji asked eagerly, while throwing a glance at Ai.

"um, yes, but where would you get a surgeon?"

"Just get everything ready!" Heji yelled over his shoulder, as he grabbed Ai and ran out of the waiting room and down toward the parking lot.

"What the hell are you doing!" Ai yelled at him.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm taking you to the professor's house, so you can get the pill, so you can act as the surgeon you said your mother was." Heji exclaimed proudly, while dragging her with him.

"What the hell?!" Ai exclaimed shocked, not believing what Heji had just said.

"If I use the antidote to turn into the real me, the Black Organization will find and kill me, as well as everybody surrounding means that you, your girlfriend and everybody else who you tend to hang out will be killed too!"

"I already know that! But this is the only way to save Kudo! I already owe him so much for helping me out on all those cases, in addition to the fact that he is one of my very best friends. How the hell can you expect me to just sit still and wait for him to die! I don't care if everybody I know might die, because it is not certain. However Kudo is doomed to die, if you don't help him! Why can't you understand that!" Heji yelled in her face.

"What will you do if the Black Organization comes and kill me half an hour after the operation, then?" Ai whispered slowly.

"I won't let that happen. I swear that if you treat Kudo's wounds, then I will protect you until the Black Organization is captured and/or they can't hurt you anymore." Heji swore solemnly, while Ai was looking at him with a surprised face, before turning around and walking into the hospital again.

"Hey, where are you going?" Heji yelled after her.

**Sorry for the long wait guys, but I have had a lot to do the last week as I will also have in the coming week, in addition to the fact that I am working on another fanfic too. However I will try to upload a chapter at least once each second week. Again, I am sorry for the long wait.**

**Arigatou Soul Punk, hai-edogawa BrookeRan1414 and Tobina for putting my story in you favorite/alert lists.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Oi!" Heji yelled after Ai, while she continued to ignore him and just walked into the hospital again. Once she came inside he grabbed her wrist and demanded to know what she was gonna do.

"You asked me to save Kudo, right?"

"Hai! So why the hell are you going inside again"

"To fix him" Ai told him.

"But you can't go in like that!"

"Why not?"

"... Because you look like a kid that was just crashed into ..."

"Baka, I never planned to go into the waiting room like this. This is a hospital that runs for 24 hours each day, which means that it has to have some kind of wardrobe, where they keep their white clothes. I will just find that room, take the antidote, change clothes and then we go up in the waiting room and act as you just went and picked me up, ok?"

"That is a great idea."

"If it is then why are you still holding my wrist, thus making it impossible for me to go and save Kudo's sorry ass?"

"..." Heji looked down at her wrist, before suddenly letting go of it,as if it was a poisonous snake.

"..." Ai looked at him, then her wrist, before shrugging her shoulders and walking into the hospital. It only took about half a minute to locate a wardrobe, which Ai went into while Heji waited outside. Once inside Ai made sure that there were no one in there, before searching for some doctor clothes that would fit her. She found a pair of white pants, as well as a white shirt and a doctor coat to wear over the whole outfit. Once these clothes were taken outside the cupboard and laid on the bench, Ai took the antidote up from her pocket. It was a small pill, about the size of a regular painkiller, just that this was formed more like a eclipse. And half of it was white, whereas the other half was blue. She continued to stare at it for a couple of more seconds. It had already been almost five minutes since she entered the wardrobe, in order to take the pill.

However if she took this pill, she would probably never be able to return to her kid version. She would be constantly hunted, constantly living in the fear of being murdered at any second. Having to confront the fact that every night could be her last night, that she might not wake up from her sleep ever again. On the other hand, there was also the fact that this antidote hadn't been tested out yet, meaning that it could easily kill her when she took it right now. Meaning that this could easily become her last moments ...

"No! I am not gonna be afraid of taking risks anymore! Kudo does it all the time, both for my sake and for his own. And that Osaka boy has already sworn to protect me, in addition to Kudo, his parents and the FBI. I have nothing to fear!" Ai thought to herself as she raised her hand with the pill up in front of her mouth. Yet once again her hand froze in position, making her unable to take the pill.

"No! I don't want to die! I can't take it! I want to get revenge for Onee-san's death (Onee-san=older sister), as well as for my parents' death. I have to live in order to do that!" she thought to herself, and unconsciously her hand moved down to her side again.

"No! I have to help Kudo, or I will never be able to look anyone in their eyes again. Not Kudo's parents, not his girlfriend, not the professor and definitely not my family, once that time comes. I got to do this, no matter how frightening it is, and trust that Kudo and the other's will have my back!" Ai, thought, and swallowed the pill without any more hesitation.

**Sorry, for the really short chapter. I will try to write a way longer chapter next time I update or give you two chapters very soon. **


	5. Chapter 5

I am extremely sorry for the extremely long wait, especially after such a short chapter, but I had a lot of tests and everything going on so I couldn't work on this fanfic.

Disclaimer: I do not own the "Detective Conan" manga, anime, movies, live action movies or live action series. It all belong to Gosho Aoyama and whoever else who has the rights to it. I am simply borrowing the characters for my story line.

* * *

Ai put the pill in her mouth without any more hesitation, swallowed and waited for the pain. And waited...

"What the heck! Why am I not changing back into my regular self?" Ai thought to herself, as Heji discretely knocked on the door that was separating them.

"Are you not done yet?" he asked worriedly.

"I swallowed the pill, but it seems like it need some more time before it will take effect," she answered, as she thought about different ways to hurry the process of turning into her regular self.

"OK, but try to hurry it. I can't stand here for ever, without raising some suspicious minds/thoughts."

A few minutes later her stomach began to burn, as if she had eaten something spicy. The feeling wouldn't disappear, instead it just continued to burn up more and more of her inner organs. The fire spread from her stomach using her blood veins as paths as it continued until the fire was everywhere. The fire was everywhere, even her fingers were on fire now, and unable to keep quiet anymore, she let out a grunt.

"Hey, you okay?" Heji asked from the other side of the door in a very worried tone.

"Yes of course, everything is just wonderful" Ai answered, while her words oozed of sarcasm.

"Eh, ok, if everything is ok then there is no problem, right?"

On the inside of the wardrobe, Ai was really shocked at Heji's denseness, after all he must have watched how much pain Conan must have endured in order to revert back to his original form many times. However she just decided to ignore him in order to concentrate on the process of changing herself back. The fire reached its climax and her bones began to grow rapidly. Her skin was pulled from its original place and at least another fifteen centimeter in every possible direction in order to fit it to her now adult sized bones. She felt as if she was inside one of those beds that's supposed to make you taller, that often appears in horror movies. Her skin was being pulled everywhere, her blood was on fire and her bones were growing so rapidly that it felt like she was crushing her old bones to dust. All in all she felt like hell, and it was all because she had to save that baka who was peacefully sleeping upstairs.

"Ehm, you ok?" Heji asked again, since she never answered his last question.

"Yeah, I feel absolutely perfect."

"Um, ok, you coming out soon?" Heji asked again as it had now been about forty minutes since he had dragged Ai from the waiting room in order to get her to do the surgery on Conan.

"Shut up, baka!" Ai yelled at him, her patience all run out, since she had to focus all her remaining strength on keeping silent and not scream from the pain, in order to hide in the wardrobe without getting caught by some curious nurse. Unable to stand up and endure the pain anymore, she more or less collapsed on the floor, before getting into the fetal position in order to lessen the pain at least by a little bit. _(I have no idea about whether it lessens a pain in real life or not, but almost every movie character that experiences a lot of pain, ends up in this position, especially females, so I thought that I would use it too ^_^ )_

The searing pain that Ai was experiencing continued for another five minutes before, she was back into her original and true size/body. She slowly relaxed her tensed muscles from the fetal position, so her body could spread itself out as if she was relaxing on the beach. She was just lying there on the floor, slowly taking in the sense of being in an adult body again after almost a year. _(According to Gosho Aoyama, the storyline of Detective Conan takes place in a space where time doesn't matter, which basically means that no matter how many winter breaks, or holiday's Conan experience it will just be a year at the most from when he was forced to take the poison. So I thought I would just continue my story from after that one year_).

"Oi, are you not done changing back yet? It has been almost an hour since I left Kazuha and the others up in the waiting room." Heji frantically called to Sherry, as his nerves were feeling very unstable. It was the first time Heji had felt truly helpless. When a crime happened he would be able to solve it easily, if someone were hurt he could admit them to the hospital to get better and if something else happened he could always get a conclusion to it by himself. But now, he couldn't do anything else than rely on the girl in the wardrobe. So why wasn't she out of the room yet?! The poor kid was still upstairs fighting for his life while the little spoiled brat on the other side of the door probably just was sleeping in there.

"Oi, answer me! You done changing?" Heji silently yelled at her. Sherry on the other hand had just got back her real body and was testing out how sore it was after taking the antidote.

She slowly stood up, before walking over to one of the wardrobes and pulling out a pair of white pants, a white shirt and a white doctor/professor coat. She quickly pulled it on, and went out in the corridor where the waiting Heji was close to a little panic attack.

"Ok, I am done. Let's go" Sherry said as she walked away from the wardrobe, in case some nurses walked over and wanted to know why she was stealing doctor clothes. They had just walked a few meters away from the wardrobe, when Heji grabbed her wrist and dragged her into a little room beneath the staircase that would take them upstairs to the waiting room where the others were.

"What is it?" Sherry asked confused that they had stopped, mainly because Heji had been the one who had been most impatient to save Conan, so why was he stopping her now?

"I don't who you are?" Heji exclaimed.

"What? Would you care to elaborate?"

"What I mean is that if Kazuha or Ran-chan, should ask about you I have no idea what to say."

"Oh, well don't worry about that. Just tell them that you know me through Kudo. If they ask anything more, just tell them that Kudo told you that in the case he was working on, the victim was a scientist who had been hunted by some thugs, and that she needed him to help her figure out who was behind sending the thugs after her."

"But what does thugs, and this scientist have to do with you ?" Heji asked still unsure of who she was and what the deal was, this was mainly because he was way too worried about Conan-kun. If the brat had been alright then he would probably have seen the connection at once.

"It has everything to do with me, after all that is mainly what really happened to me." Sherry said slowly, while trying not to let her memories of her cursed past engulf her mind in pain.

"Oh, sumimasen (sumimasen = I am sorry). But you are right, that would work and by sticking close to the truth it will make it more believable, and easier to expand it if it should be needed. However I need to know some basic facts about you, like your name and age."

"Yeah, sure, just call me Sherry and tell them that the only thing that you know about me is that I am a scientist, and that Kudo is working on my case, ok?" Sherry asked seriously.

"Hai (Hai = Yes)" Heji answered before he began to walk up to the waiting room.

* * *

In order to avoid confusion I will use the name Conan when he is the kid version of himself, and Kudo / Shinchi when he is the teenage version. In the same way I will use Ai when she is a kid, and Sherry when she is a teenager/adult. I know that Sherry is just her code name, and that her real name is Shiho , but I will use that name once it is/ when it is publicly announced in this fanfic = when other people than Kudo and the professor figure out her real name or when she tells it.


	6. Chapter 6

I have edited one little thing in chapter three: Ai says that it is her mother who told her about the surgery, I changed it to her aunt instead.

* * *

Sherry followed Heji upstairs and into the waiting room, where the professor, Sonoko and Kazuha were sitting depressed in their chairs, while trying to console Ran who had began to cry really hard. Kazuha raised her head when she heard the door opening, only to look into the deep brown eyes, which had been filled with despair when he had heard about Conan-kun's future, was now alight with hope. (I haven't watched the anime to this show yet, so I don't know which color his eyes really is, I am simply guessing, as I have just read the manga).

"Where have you been?!" Kazuha yelled at Heji, as she left her crying friend's side.

"He left to pick me up and send my little niece back to her mother." Sherry answered as she stepped forward from her position behind Heji's back.

"Who are you?" Ran asked as she dried her red and puffy eyes with her sleeve.

"You can call me Sherry, and I came here in order to do the surgery on the little friend of my niece." Sherry answered calmly, while her inner self was devastated over how much Ran-sn seemed to care about the boy she was in love with.

"... Really! You can fix Conan-kun?" the three girls asked shocked.

"Yes, just get the nurse already so I can begin the operation." Sherry told them, and at once when she was done speaking, Ran jumped up from her chair and ran out of the waiting room to find the nurse, quickly followed by the other two girls. They returned with the nurse within a couple of minutes.

"So you are saying that you are a surgeon who has specialized in surgery in the brain area, yet you don't look any older than 22 to me. Are you sure you are a real surgeon?" the nurse asked doubtfully as she looked at Sherry.

"What of course, she is a surgeon. Even Kudo said so, after all he was the one who introduced me to her." Heji told the nurse seriously.

"Then show me your id, so we can confirm things." the nurse told Sherry.

"Sorry, I forgot it back at the place where I am staying."

"Then we can't let you do the surgery on the kid." the nurse told them.

"WHAT!" was the reply the nurse got from the others.

"Why not?" the professor asked, who also was worried about Kudo's condition.

"Because you can't be sure, if I am a surgeon as I say I am, right?" Sherry asked the nurse.

"Yes, what if you were … well I don't know, a spy who wanted to kill him? I know this sounds a bit far fetched, but as I don't have any proofs that can prove that you are who you say you are, I can't let you perform the surgery.I am sorry." the nurse told them apologetically, while Sherry was chuckling to herself at the nurse's great example of who she could have been. Because after all it could have been the truth had he not decided to save her from the darkness, known as the Black Organization.

"But you can't do that! What if the kid dies? Are you gonna say that you could save him, because the surgeon forgot her ID?" Heji asked the nurse furiously.

"That is the rule. I have nothing to say on how the rule is practised, I am simply following it."

"That is bullshit! Why can't you just let her perform the surgery? It is just a little plastic card. What's the difference? I can guarantee that she won't kill him?" Heji told the nurse desperately.

"Can you really guarantee that I won't kill the kid?" Sherry asked Heji slyly.

"Huh, what! Of course you won't kill him! You promised you would save him!" Heji told her.

"A promise is just a simple set of words that can guarantee nothing. A promise has absolutely no worth in this world, as it is just some words." Sherry said.

"What! But you said you would save him." Heji told her.

"Yeah I know, I just wanted to let you know that I couldn't care less about a simple promise. What matters is what the correct thing to do is, and in this case it is to save that brat's life."

"I understand that you want to save the kid's life, but I can't let you do it. You look like you barely finished High School, so how am I supposed to believe that you have already finished a seven year medical study?" the nurse asked (Sherry looks like she is a teenager / somebody who just finished High School, but in order to be a doctor you have to study for at least seven more years (or so I have heard somewhere) after High School. So if Sherry actually finished this study she would look like she was in her late twenties.)

"I can assure you that I know what i will be doing when I am gonna perform that surgery on that brat, so you better just give me to key to his room already." Sherry told the nurse.

"I have already told you that I can't do that, and if you don't wanna listen to common sense then I will leave you guys here to cool your heads off, so you can gain your senses again." the nurse told them and turned around in order to leave the room.

"Oi, you can't just leave! What about the kid?" Heji asked the nurse furiously, while Sherry calmly looked at the scene unfolding in front of her, along with the other three teenage girls (Sonoko, Kazuha and Ran) and the professor. The nurse just ignored Heji's outburst and walked towards the door, just as Sherry grabbed her left wrist and pulled her back, so that the nurse was face to face with Sherry, only separated by a few inches.

"Do you even realize what you are doing?" Sherry asked the nurse coldly.

"Yes, I do! I am just following the rules that every single person who works in the medical facility has to follow! If you actually are a surgeon as you claim to be, you would have understood me and left this matter alone!" the nurse yelled at Sherry, while she was trying to squirm out of Sherry's grip, but it was too strong and firm.

"So you don't realize what you are doing" Sherry slowly said, as she looked in the eyes of the nurse. Eyes that were filled with utter consciousness that believed that following the rules were the correct thing to do, no matter what.

"I do realize it! Just let me go! Let me go already, or … or … or I will call in the cops!" the terrified nurse told Sherry. The nurse was terrified because of what she had seen in Sherry's eyes, when Sherry has looked into the nurse's eyes. After all Sherry's eyes had been filled with so much pain, with flashing emotions such as remorse, such an heart wrenching anguish over something that must have happened to her before. The nurse was terrified due to the fact that such a young girl, who seemed like such a brave and strong girl, would show so much pain, almost as if she had witnessed a massacre, and been unable to prevent it from happening. Pain that had resulted from years of isolation and loneliness, in addition to a growing sense of guilt.

"Let you go? Let you go, so you can do what? Keep your job here, at the hospital where you are supposed to save lives, after just being the reason to that brat's demise?" Sherry asked her harshly, making the nurse quiver.

"But then again, I am just a stupid teenage girl, who has absolutely no knowledge whatsoever concerning the deep regrets that a life at a hospital can leave you with, right? So please go ahead and leave this room with the key, that could probably save that brat's life." Sherry told the nurse happily as she let go of the nurse's wrist and backed up a few steps. The nurse just looked at Sherry for a another two minutes.

"Here, do whatever you want, but don't tell them that I gave you the keys, ok?" the nurse asked Sherry as she put the keys and all her noted about Conan's condition on the table.

"Sure thing," Sherry told her absentmindedly, while she began to go through the notes on the table. The nurse withdrew from the room after writing down a short note about where the operation room was, which room Conan was currently sleeping in, where he was supposed to sleep after the operation, and after putting a card down on the table. A card that would open every single door in the entire hospital, which meant that the nurse more or less trusted Sherry, or was too frightened by her to risk provoking her.

"Oi, what are you doing? Shouldn't you be treating Ku- Conan-kun?" Heji asked.

"Shut up!" Sherry told him, much to the astonishment of the others, especially as her eyes were glued to the reports, and that she never saw how angry Heji got over being ignored by a girl, after having to have stooped as low as to beg her for saving the brat.

"Oi, what do you think you are doing? don't you have to perform that surgery already as time is already passing by in a blur." Heji asked Sherry impatiently, as the others kept quiet, just watching the show that unfolded in front of them. Sherry slowly put the notes aside, before turning around to glare at the impatient and annoying Hattori-kun.

"What do you expect me to do then?" Sherry asked.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I just want you to perform that surgery! Can't you do it already?"

"Why would I be standing here, if I could perform the surgery already?"

"What Sherry-san means is probably that she needs to go through the reports in order to figure out how to perform the surgery in the best way possible, right?" Ran told Heji, before turning to Sherry in order to gain confirmation.

"She is right, in addition remains the fact that I haven't performed a surgery in a long time, so I want to prepare myself as much as possible. Don't worry Hattori-kun, there is tons of time left. The surgery itself will just take a few hours, and we still have at least 40 hours left, so don't worry and just let me do this in my own pace." Sherry calmly told Heji, before returning back to her reports. Since the others didn't want to interrupt her, as that could lessen Conan's remaining life, they had their own chat at the other end of the room. About two hours later, Sherry stood up from the table and walked towards the doors, with the reports and notes in one hand, and the card and the keys in the other hand.

"You guys should just wait here, I will call upon you later," was the only thing Sherry said before she left the room. After she left, there were nobody who could reassure them of Conan's safety, so they were left in an agonizing torture, called waiting without any knowledge on what was actually going on. Suddenly Ran's cell rang, which startled the entire group, however Ran fastly collected herself and answered the call.

"Oi, Ran where the hell are you?! Do you know what time it is?! You better be coming home soon, or I will come searching for you and ground you!" kogoro yelled from the other end of the phone.

"Otou-san (Otou-san = father) ?"Ran whispered.

"Yeah, something wrong?" Kogoro asked suddenly worried, which made Ran cry, which made Kogoro even more worried.

"Oi, what's up? At least tell me" Kogoro begged Ran, but no matter what Ran couldn't stop her tears from overflowing, so the professor took her phone and went outside the waiting room to explain the situation to Ran's father, while the teenagers tried to comfort Ran.

"Moshi moshi Mouri-san (moshi moshi = hello)" the professor told Kogoro solemnly on the other side of the door.

"Oi, professor what's going on? Why is Ran crying?" Kogoro asked worriedly.

"You know that Ran and Conan-kun came with me and Ai-chan in order to pick up Kazuha-chan and Heji-kun, right?" the professor asked.

"Yes, the kids from Osaka where supposed to sleep over at my place after all."

"Well, after we picked them up, we went to the park, where we met Sonoko, but while the kids were in the park I were in the parking lot trying to park my car. So when Ai-chan and Conan-kun couldn't find me, they decided to search for me in that gigantic parking lot, where a dozen cars are moving around each minute, right? So when the kids were going to cross over to the second section of the parking lot, they forgot to check where they were going so they ended up in the middle of the path to a gigantic truck … " the professor said slowly.

" … what! So what's the situation now? … You don't mean they died?" Kogoro asked shocked.

"What?! Of course they didn't die! Ai-chan's mother was coming by, and as she was completely unhurt, her mother decided to take her home. However, Conan-kun is another matter."

"What do you mean?" Kogoro asked worriedly, after all the kid was living with him so any problems that happened to the kid would be his responsibilities, and the mess Ran would be if anything happened to that brat. Better to know how to fix the brat, than deal with those problems.

"What I mean is that Conan-kun was hit by the truck really hard, so a lot of splinters from his skull is laying dangerously close to his brain. So he needed a brain specialist, in order to perform the surgery, so Heji had to get a girl he knew to do the surgery on the kid, but we don't know if he will survive or not."

"That is why Ran was crying, right? because that brat might die, I mean?"

"Yeah. If you wanna come by and pick up some of the teenagers, then we are at the Beika Hospital at the Sakura Road."

"OK, thanks professor. I will get by later. Bye"

"Bye … wait, you still there?"

"Yes, is something wrong?" Kogoro asked worriedly.

"No, nothing is wrong, it is just that I forgot to tell you that Ran was supposed to meet her mother this evening with Kazuha and Sonoko, and as she is unable to get to her mother at the moment you would have to tell her to get here, OK?"

" … … … … … Fine, I will let Eri know about this. But you owe me one for making me meet that woman."

"Sure, whatever. See ya later then, Mouri" the professor said as he hanged up, and walked back into the waiting room. The teens seemed to have calmed down, as they were all just sitting around doing nothing, just casting occasional glances towards the door in hope of Sherry's return.

"Ran, may I borrow your cell in order to make a few more calls?" the professor asked hesitantly, not wanting to upset Ran with any carelessly spoken words. However Ran was not as fragile as many might have taken her for being.

"Yes of course, professor. Please go ahead and make your calls." Ran told him with a strong voice, before looking apologetically down. However, she didn't have to say a single word for him to understand that she was apologizing for her unseemingly behaviour when her dad called, and for leaving the responsibility of explaining everything to her dad on the professor's shoulders. The professor just nodded reassuringly, before heading out of the waiting room again to call Yusaku and Yukiko. After all they were Shinchi's parents and they deserved to know the fact that their only son might die within the next 40 hours or so. Even though Conan-kun didn't look like the sixteen year old handsome high-school detective, that is who he really was, so of course the detective's parents had to know about this.

And as the professor expected, Yusaku took the facts really calmly, while Yukiko broke down completely, when she heard that her dear Shin-chan was dying. They booked tickets on the next plane to Tokyo, while the professor hanged up and went back into the waiting room where he gave Ran her cell phone back, before sliding down into a seat. They sat there for another three hours before they heard somebody knocking on the door to the waiting room. The teenagers gave each other some confused glances before Heji walked up to the door in order to open it.

"Oh, hello there Mouri-san, Kisaki-san. Why didn't you guys just walk in?" Heji asked them, as they walked into the room, and took their seats beside Ran.

"We weren't sure which waiting room you guys were in, and we didn't want to interrupt the nurse if she had been talking to you guys inside here." Kogoro told him. The professor updated Kogoro and Eri thoroughly about what had happened, while they continued to wait for Sherry to reappear. Another hour later Kudo's parents turned up at the entrance to the waiting room. Yukiko's usually styled hair was now in a mess and her eyes bloodshot from all the crying, but she seemed to have gotten a better grip on how to act now, compared to how she had acted when she first heard the news. It could perhaps be because of her tight grip on her husband's arm. When Eri saw what kind of state her best friend was in, she instantly went over to Yukiko's side and guided her over to a seat on the other side of the room, before sitting down beside her, while Yusaku sat down beside Kogoro. The room was very quiet, except for the different females whispering reassuring words in the ears of respectively, Yukiko and Ran. Two hours after Kudo's parents showed up the door opened itself.

* * *

I know that I am extremely unoriginal with both the road name (Sakura Road) and the hospital name (Beika Hospital), but I seriously lack the imagination to create/find names for people, places or other things.


	7. Chapter 7

The door opened up, and revealed a Sherry clad in the white cloak. However the white cloak, which had been really clean just a couple of hours earlier, was now stained with blood. Almost the entire front was covered in blood except for the arms, the neckline and the hem. Just the sight of Sherry clad in that bloody outfit, made Sonoko scream out in fear, joined by Kazuha, while Heji, the professor and Yusaku just stared at her. The others had more or less just gone into a shock modus.

"Shut up!" Sherry yelled at Kazuha and Sonoko, before slumping down on the floor, with her back resting against the wall behind the door and her face placed in her palms, which were resting on her bent knees. Not expecting to hear this, the rest of them sat there stunned into silence. "Why had she let herself be persuaded into doing that damned surgery on Kudo-kun? She should just have kept silent and acted as if she knew nothing about what was wrong with him, just like the kid she had been supposed to be. But no, of course she couldn't and that had probably led to the death of the only person outside her family who had risked everything for her freedom. Why couldn't she at least remember what she had done? Why was it all blank from the time period when she donned that green surgery dress over her stolen, white cloak, and until the she had found herself outside the surgery room in a bloody, white cloak. She had been way too scared of the possible conditions that she might have run into, if she went into the surgery room again, so she had simply backtracked back to the waiting room. What if she had simply let her fingers follow the usual pattern they had when they were examining a human body in a room filled with medical equipment? What if she had done an autopsy on him, while he were still alive? What if she had slit open his chest to study his heart beat, while he still was alive? What if she had somehow or another ended up killing him, instead of saving him? She shouldn't have let herself be persuaded into doing a surgery, she knew she wasn't mentally prepared for. That was it, she hadn't been mentally prepared to save a life, instead of killing it like she usually had been killing people for almost a decade now, how could she have convinced herself that she in any way was capable of saving a human life. Lives that she had been stealing for years. What kind of right had she had to test out her abilities to save a life, on Kudo-kun's body? On the body of the person who had thrown away everything for her sake, his girlfriend, friends and family. Kudo-kun had thrown away his entire life, in order to capture the Black Organization. Not to mention the fact, that if she hadn't given Gin the prototype of APTX 4869, he would never have been involved in this mess at all. Damn it all! Why had she had to be so stupid?" Sherry chastised herself in her mind, while all the others sat in the waiting room waiting for some sort of response about what had happened to the boy.

Unable to stand the wait any longer Kogoro asked the question they all were wanted the answer to:

"So how did the surgery go?"

"Who knows?" Sherry answered as she raised her face up from her hands.

"What do you mean, who knows? You were the one who performed that surgery on him, right? So was it a success or not?" Kogoro asked impatiently. If anything happened to that damned brat, while he was in charge of him, he would never be able to hear the end of it.

"Who knows?" Sherry repeated, while her eyes were slowly looking through the room, before her glance stopped by her Yusaku Kudo's face, before she slumped down to the right side and passed out. Yusaku was by her side within a second, and simply lifted her up in his arms bridal style, telling Yukio to take care of the things at the hospital, and that he would take Sherry to their house, where he would wait for them, before he left the room.

The room turned silent once again, as they all waited for someone to explain the thing that had just happened. The minutes slowly ticked away, and the room was just as silent. After a quarter or so, Yukio turned towards Eri, and asked whether she wanted to come with her to the reception to ask about Conan's health as that probably was the easiest way, before both of them left the room, and returned a couple of minutes later with a nurse, that could explain the situation to them.

"So what's the deal with that brat?" Kogoro asked as soon as the nurse had closed the door behind herself.

"The brat?"

"The little boy that arrived here at this hospital a couple of hours ago, his name is Conan Edwogowa." Ran explained to the nurse.

They all left the hospital a couple of minutes later, while the professor decided to stay over at the hospital with Conan-kun, just in case he woke up. Since Yukio had to go back to the Kudo residence in order to tell Yusaku, about Conan's condition. They just ordered a couple of cabs to take all of them back to the Kudo residence, with the adults in one and the teens in the other one.

The cabs stopped in front of the Kudo residence, and the passengers got out of the cabs, while Yukio paid for the trip. Ran led the way inside the house, followed by the others teens, the professor and her parents, and Yukio as the last person. However, after just a couple of steps into the living room, Ran abruptly stopped, as she saw something she had never seen before.

"I really wish you would jump up right now, and say something really interesting about Sherlock Holmes, right now, boy." The professor said aloud to no one in particular as he watched over Conan-kun's body.

* * *

I know that I have made all of you wait for ages for this update, and that it is very short. Yet I don't have any other excuse than the fact that I have begun in second year of High School, and thus is unable to update quickly. So please rewiev and I will to update as fast as I can.


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